The separation of immiscible fluid components, such as oil and water is of substantial economic importance in many industries. Installations for achieving a passable degree of such separation represent an important capital expense in such industries and the installations themselves may be of substantial size. A typical installation might employ a cylindrical pressure vessel with a diameter in the region of one meter and an axial length of some 3 meters arranged horizontally, the tank having a collector vessel attached thereto, the overall vertical dimensions of the installation being in the region of 2 meters. The pressure vessel of a typical such prior proposed separation apparatus is divided into a main chamber and a secondary chamber at one axial end thereof. The fluid to be separated is fed into the main chamber and the less dense separated component is withdrawn from the upper regions (typically from a collector dome) of the main chamber. The two components are separated by tortuous passage through separation means such as a plate pack in passage from the main chamber to the secondary chamber, separation being achieved by the tortuous passage and the denser component passing through into the secondary chamber.
We have sought to improve upon this prior proposal in a way which allows similar or enhanced efficiency of separation to be achieved in an apparatus of lesser overall dimensions for substantially the same through-put.